Shape Up With Rick: What is your food telling you?

Listen to your food? What does this exactly mean? How can you listen to your food?

It’s easy.

When you consume food, this is your chance to listen to what it’s trying to tell you.

It’s going to either say, “Eat more of me; I make you healthy and fit” or “I make you feel tired, bloated and groggy so go lay down."

Consumption of food can make you either feel great or feel not-so great.

Most of the time the food that makes you feel not-so great is the best-tasting food.

I know when I consume pizza I am going to feel not-so great. That happens to me 100 percent of the time. I know that when I eat pizza with my kids I am going to get a headache, feel bloated and become irritated.

When new members start into one of our programs, we work on a few easy steps to get them to feel better.

The first one is to drink more water to get hydrated. When people do this, they are amazed how well they begin to feel. They have more energy, they have less headaches, they have less cravings and the list goes on.

The preface of this column is to start paying more attention to what you are consuming daily.

How is what you are consuming making you feel?

When you finish a meal, how do you feel?

If you instantly want to go from the dinner table to the couch for the rest of the evening, that's a problem.

When you finish a meal, your energy levels should raise. It’s fuel for the day. Food is your choice of fuel. Whether you choose good fuel or choose poor fuel, it’s fuel either way.

You want to gain energy from what you are consuming, not crash.

How do we begin to prepare for our meals and understand what we should be eating?

I would first take a look at what you have in your grocery cart and also what’s stuffed in your cabinets, your fridge and freezer.

Are you constantly and randomly just buying groceries going from aisle to aisle throwing whatever looks good into your cart?

You need a game plan. You need a belief in what you will buy. There is no such thing as “kid food” or “snacks for kids.”

You’re in charge of what you purchase and ultimately what you consume.

Start paying more attention to when you consume foods. If what you are eating is making you feel downright horrible and unmotivated, it’s time to change.

Make a conscious effort to make mental notes. Write down how you feel when you eat a certain foods and begin to learn more about you, your body and the foods that your body needs to give you the most energy on a daily basis.